Building healthcare supply chains around the patient

Healthcare supply chains are becoming increasingly complex. Growing demand for temperature-sensitive products, stricter regulatory requirements, and the rise of biologics, vaccines, cell and gene therapies and speciality pharmaceuticals mean maintaining product integrity from origin to patient has never been more critical.

At the same time, healthcare companies are seeking greater resilience, visibility, and capacity across increasingly global and multimodal supply chains.

Eric ten Kate, Global Sector Leader, Healthcare at CEVA Logistics, recently participated in a feature with Pharmaphorum, sharing his perspective on the evolving healthcare logistics landscape and the investment being made in CEVA FORPATIENTS at Rockingham, our new healthcare facility in the UK.

Rockingham is CEVA’s new flagship, dedicated healthcare logistics facility, strategically located in Northamptonshire within the UK’s Golden Triangle. Representing a significant investment in healthcare capabilities, the site brings together specialist logistics expertise, healthcare quality governance, technology and automation to support the evolving needs of healthcare customers. With strong sustainability credentials, including BREEAM standards, the Rockingham site has been designed to help build resilient, efficient and future-ready healthcare supply chains while providing the capacity and capabilities to support customers’ long-term growth.

Building on that conversation, Eric discusses the challenges shaping healthcare logistics, why CEVA’s Rockingham facility represents an important step forward and why, ultimately, every healthcare supply chain starts and ends with the patient.

What are some of the biggest challenges facing healthcare supply chains today?

Eric ten Kate: Healthcare supply chains are under more pressure than ever. Customers increasingly need real-time monitoring, proactive exception management and end-to-end traceability across global and multimodal supply chains.

Capacity is another important consideration. As demand for temperature-controlled healthcare logistics continues to grow, companies need scalable warehousing infrastructure in strategic locations, close to major transport networks and healthcare markets.

Maintaining integrity throughout the whole supply chain remains fundamental. Even a small temperature deviation can affect a product's efficacy. Our objective is simple: to deliver the product compliantly, in the right condition, at the right time, and to the right destination.

Why is temperature control so critical?

Healthcare products can be extremely sensitive, and every handoff introduces potential risk. A temperature excursion can compromise product efficacy, create regulatory issues and lead to product loss.

More importantly, there is a patient at the end of that supply chain.

That is why we build visibility around these products. Wherever they are, we need to understand their condition and temperature. If something begins to move outside the required parameters, having the right data and visibility allows us to proactively intervene.

If a patient arrives at a hospital for an appointment and the product they need is not available or cannot be used, that has a real human impact. That patient perspective needs to sit at the heart of healthcare logistics.

Where does the Rockingham facility fit into CEVA’s healthcare strategy?

Our Rockingham facility represents a significant investment in the future of our healthcare logistics capabilities.

The site is in the heart of the UK’s logistics “Golden Triangle”, giving us excellent access to population centres, major motorway networks, parcel hubs, airports and healthcare distribution corridors.

For healthcare customers, speed, reliability and connectivity are particularly important when managing temperature-sensitive products, time-critical therapies and hospital supply chains. Rockingham gives us a strong location from which to support those requirements while enabling efficient nationwide distribution.

It is also about anticipating future demand. We are investing in infrastructure now that will support customers as their requirements continue to evolve.

How will the facility support the growth of more sophisticated therapies?

The healthcare sector is experiencing significant growth in areas such as personalised medicine, biologics, speciality pharmaceuticals, vaccines, advanced therapies and cell and gene therapies.

These products require increasingly sophisticated logistics, precision and temperature-controlled infrastructure. Customers need end-to-end cold-chain solutions that maintain precise temperature ranges while providing full visibility and regulatory compliance.

Through specialised warehousing, validated transportation processes, real-time monitoring and dedicated healthcare control towers, we can support these increasingly complex programmes.

At our Rockingham facility, we are proactively creating future-ready healthcare infrastructure with GDP-compliant storage, temperature-controlled operations and end-to-end visibility. The investment demonstrates the seriousness of our long-term ambition in healthcare logistics.

Why was the location of CEVA’s Rockingham facility so important?

Location was a major factor in the investment decision.

For healthcare logistics, warehousing capacity alone is not enough. You need connectivity to the wider healthcare ecosystem and transport infrastructure.

Being within the UK’s Golden Triangle means customers can position inventory closer to key markets, optimise distribution and improve resilience. It also creates opportunities to reduce unnecessary transport miles, consolidate distribution activities and improve vehicle utilisation.

That combination of healthcare capability, connectivity and scale makes Rockingham particularly important.

How is sustainability being incorporated into the development?

Sustainability is fundamental to our Rockingham facility. The facility is not simply designed to provide additional healthcare warehousing capacity; it will support customers with both their supply chain requirements and their own environmental ambitions.

We are creating a modern facility that combines sustainable building design, operational efficiency and data-driven supply chain management while maintaining the high standards of product integrity, compliance and patient safety that healthcare demands.

Our approach considers three areas: measure, optimise and shift.

Measurement starts with visibility and accurate data around carbon emissions, energy consumption and supply chain performance. Optimisation means designing efficient networks, positioning inventory intelligently and reducing unnecessary movements. Shift means helping customers consider lower-carbon logistics solutions and alternative transport modes where appropriate, while always protecting healthcare compliance and product integrity.

What role does CEVA’s global network play in healthcare logistics?

Healthcare supply chains do not stop at borders, so bringing different capabilities together is extremely important.

We combine specialised healthcare expertise with an integrated global network. From inbound raw materials and manufacturing support through to temperature-controlled warehousing, inventory management, global transportation, customs management, hospital distribution and returns, we can manage the complex logistics ecosystem around healthcare products.

What differentiates us is the ability to bring those capabilities together through one global healthcare operating model, one quality framework and one visibility platform.

Whether we support a multinational pharmaceutical company, medical device manufacturer, or hospital network, the objective remains the same: ensuring critical healthcare products reach patients safely, compliantly, and on time.

You often say that “every shipment has a patient at the end of it.” What does that mean in practice?

For healthcare products, logistics is never simply about moving a shipment from A to B. We are responsible for protecting product integrity throughout the journey, but our responsibility ultimately extends beyond warehouses and transport networks.

A vaccine, surgical device, cancer therapy or homecare treatment only delivers value when it reaches the patient safely and on time.

We have always said: it’s not a box, it’s a patient.

There is a person behind every shipment, and that changes the way you think about the decisions you make. It is why people across our sector go above and beyond and why that patient perspective guides the solutions we design and the operations we manage.

What does the future of healthcare logistics look like?

The future will require increasingly resilient, sustainable and patient-centric supply chains.

Greater visibility, proactive monitoring and integrated global capabilities will become even more important as therapies become more sophisticated and supply chains more complex.

But despite all the technology, infrastructure and investment involved, we should never lose sight of what healthcare logistics is ultimately about: people.

Every decision we make should come back to one question: “How do we best protect the product and ultimately serve the patient who depends on it?”

That principle will continue to guide our investments, our solutions and the way we build the healthcare supply chains of the future.

 

About Eric ten Kate

Eric ten Kate is Global Sector Leader – Healthcare at CEVA Logistics. He has more than 20 years of international leadership experience across healthcare, life sciences, logistics and supply chain industries, combining commercial strategy, customer development and operational transformation.

 He has extensive experience leading global healthcare portfolios, strategic customer relationships, and international teams, with a track record of building and scaling international businesses, developing strategic customer partnerships, and driving growth across multinational organisations.